Road transport in Spain moved a total of 445 million tonnes of palletised goods in 2020, which represents 50% more than the volume reached in 2011. This growth contrasts with the zero variation in total road transport traffic over the same decade, with 1,468 million tonnes in 2020 and 1,466 million tonnes in 2011.
About to turn a century old, the pallet continues to reaffirm itself as an essential loading system for the logistics chain and already represents 30% of the total goods moved by truck in Spain. The percentage is even higher if we analyse the tonnes moved per kilometre, with a result of 53%.
With these results, Spain is ahead of France and is now the second largest European market in pallet transport, second only to Germany, which achieved a total of 678 million tonnes in 2020. In terms of tonnes per kilometre, however, Spain is far behind the countries with the highest proportion of palletised goods: Romania, with 73%; Bulgaria, 62%; and Slovakia, with 61%.
Why is pallet transport increasing?
To understand the importance of pallets in the transport of goods and why they continue to increase their share in the logistics market, we must assess the benefits that this loading system brings in terms of efficiency, speed, safety and versatility, which translates into significant savings for all actors involved in the supply chain, as Andreu Gutiérrez, Road Commercial Director of Rhenus Logistics, maintains.
"Pallets reduce loading and unloading time, increase worker safety, improve logistics efficiency and protect products. This sum of benefits is the reason why more than 5 billion pallets are currently in circulation around the world," says the Rhenus executive.
Advantages of the pallet in transport:
- Speeds up the supply chain with faster movement of goods: pallets allow a large number of items to be accumulated, which exponentially increases the speed of distribution and the time spent on loading and unloading.
- Increases the safety of products in transport and of workers: the use of pallets has increased safety in all phases of transport for products, as they prevent the deterioration and falling of the goods, which in turn increases the protection of the professionals in charge of handling them.
- Useful for all types of industries: pallets have demonstrated their capacity to transport countless products, of any value or weight, and are used by practically all industries, given the great versatility offered by this system.